WarSclerotic

Jerusalem Post – Breaking News.

Israel has killed the military leader of the Palestinian group, Hamas. Egypt has condemned the attack and recalled its ambassador to Israel.

The Arab League has said it will discuss the matter at a special meeting to be held later this week, while the Gulf state of Qatar said the attack should not pass without punishment.

The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, has called for an end to the violence.

via Gaza air strikes: Why has Israel acted now – YouTube.

Israel has launched a deadly military offensive against Gaza, with fighter jets and warships attacking the occupied territory.

The operation began with the airstrike assassination of the military leader of Hamas. The Palestinian group pledged to open the gates of hell in retaliation. Israel Defense Force spokesperson Lt Col Avital Leibovich has told RT that Israel doesn’t need justification for its military operation against Hamas

via IDF on ‘Pillar of Defense’: Israel needs no justification to strike Hamas – YouTube.

Avital Leibovich, the Israeli military spokeswoman, talks to Al Jazeera about the killing of Hamas military chief Ahmad Jabari and the subsequent air strikes. She says Hamas started the escalation in violence.

via Israeli army spokeswoman comments on Gaza attacks – YouTube.

Egypt: Israeli envoy called back to Israel – Israel News, Ynetnews.

Ambassdor Yaakov Amitai returned to Israel prior to launching of Operation Cloud Pillar due to concerns for his safety in case mass protests break out in Cairo. Embassy staff evacuated

Itamar Eichner

Israel‘s Ambassador in Cairo Yaakov Amitai was called back to Israel prior to the launching of Operation Cloud Pillar in Gaza due to concerns for his safety should mass protests break out in Cairo.

The majority of the Israeli embassy staff were scheduled to return to Israel on Wednesday – the day Muslims mark the Islamic new year. The embassy will not be active throughout the weekend.Itamar Eichner is a Ynet and Yedioth Ahronoth correspondent

Their return was moved up by one day in light of the developments on the Gaza border. Amitai returned to Israel on Wednesday at noon. The Foreign Ministry ordered a quiet evacuation of the embassy’s staff.

Earlier on Wednesday, Egyptian Ambassador to Israel Atef Salem phoned Israel’s Foreign Ministry and informed officials he had been asked to return to Egypt for consultations.

State officials estimated the step was a sign of a temporary crisis that does not threaten the peace treaty.

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi, they said, is not interested in cutting ties with Jerusalem, but rather express his outrage. Israeli officials feared that Jordan might have to follow in Egypt’s footsteps and also recall its ambassador from Israel.

Also Wednesday, Egyptian TV reported that Morsi had summoned the Israeli ambassador to protest the IDF’s strikes in Gaza.

“President Morsi has followed the Israeli brutal assault in which a number of martyrs and sons of the Palestinian people were killed,” presidential spokesman Yasser Ali said in a statement on television and on his Facebook website.

“On this basis he has recalled the Egyptian ambassador from Israel; has ordered the Egyptian representative at the United Nations to call for an emergency meeting at the Security Council … and summoned the Israeli ambassador in Egypt in protest over the assault,” the statement added.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr condemned Israel’s airstrikes in Gaza remarking that “the Israeli escalation comes at a critical point in the Middle East which threatens to harshly exacerbate matters.”

Foreign Minister Amr had demanded that Israel immediately stop its strikes in Gaza “and avoid any act that might escalate matters further.” He also warned Israel of the negative consequences of the escalation on peace and security in the region.

Jerusalem Post – Breaking News.

Rocket Attacks on Israel From Gaza • IDF Blog | The Official Blog of the Israel Defense Forces.

Since Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, terrorists have fired more than 8,000 rockets into Israel. Over one million Israelis are currently living under threat of rocket attacks.

In 2011 alone, 630 rockets from Gaza hit Israeli towns. That’s an even higher number than in 2010, when 231 rockets hit Israel. Since 2001, more than 12,800 rockets and mortars, an average of 3 attacks every single day, have landed in Israel.

Last update: November 15, 2012

Hamas is the ruling entity of the Gaza Strip and recognized as a terrorist group by the US, UK, EU and Israel. (Read more about Hamas.) In recent years, Hamas has been increasing the size and capabilities of its rocket arsenal.

More than half a million Israelis have less than 60 seconds to find shelter after a rocket is launched from Gaza into Israel. Most rockets launched from Gaza into Israel are capable of reaching Israel’s biggest southern cities:

Although Israel withdrew from the Gaza Strip in 2005, terrorists continued to launch thousands of rockets into Israeli cities and communities. After exhausting non-military moves and diplomatic overtures to hinder Hamas’ rocket attacks, Israel launched Operation Cast Lead in December 2008. The military operation was successful in destroying Hamas’ rocket launchers and terror infrastructure.

Overnight, the IDF targeted approximately 100 medium and long range rocket launch and infrastructure sites across the Gaza Strip. This has significantly damaged the rocket launch capabilities and munitions warehouses operated by Hamas and other terror organizations.

via IAF Targets Fajr Infrastructure in Gaza – YouTube.

Hamas Hides Fajr-5 Rocket in Underground Launch Site in Gaza – YouTube.

Fajr-5 rockets, a long range missile capable of threatening the lives of 3.5 million Israeli civilians, are shown being unloaded and concealed in an underground launch site.

Slain Hamas military chief masterminded capture of Israeli soldier, Gaza takeover – The Washington Post.

By Associated Press, Published: November 14

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip — The shadowy Hamas military chief killed in an Israeli missile strike Wednesday had long topped the Jewish state’s most-wanted list for masterminding a string of deadly attacks.

One was the 2006 capture of an Israeli soldier in a complex cross-border raid that killed two other soldiers.

Ahmed Jabari, a former history student who spent 13 years in Israeli prisons, also commanded Hamas fighters during a 2007 takeover of Gaza in which they drove out forces loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

During nine years as leader of the Hamas Izzedine al Qassam Brigades, Jabari largely stayed out of the public eye. His highest profile appearance came in October 2011, when he escorted the captured Israeli soldier, Sgt. Gilad Schalit, out of Gaza in a swap for about 1,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel.

In a public appearance late Wednesday, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak called Jabari “the military chief of staff of Hamas.”

Jabari was born in 1960 in Gaza City. He began as a member of Abbas’ Fatah movement, but switched his allegiance to Hamas during his time in Israeli prisons.

After Israel released him in 1995, he worked for a Hamas-run support group for prisoners. In 1998, he was jailed by Palestinian security forces in Gaza for his involvement with the Hamas military wing. Jabari was released two years later, after Israel shelled Gaza prisons as part of its crackdown on a Palestinian uprising.

In 2003, Jabari became the de facto commander of the Hamas military wing after then-chief Mohammed Deif was seriously wounded in an Israeli attack. Jabari survived four attempts by Israel to kill him. In 2004, an air strike on Jabari’s house killed his son, Mohammed, a brother and three other relatives.

Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005 but still controls its airspace, seacoast and all but one of its land crossings.

Hamas has ruled Gaza with an iron hand since the 2007 takeover, deepening the political split with Abbas. Repeated attempts at reconciliation have failed.

The takeover deepened the isolation of Hamas and prompted the group to rely increasingly on Iran and Syria. Jabari was instrumental in developing the Hamas military arsenal and the group’s networks in Iran, Sudan and Lebanon.

The Hamas founding charter calls for the destruction of Israel, though the group has been grappling with its political direction in recent years.

Founded in Gaza in 1987, Hamas carried out scores of suicide bombings in Israel, killing hundreds of Israelis, but halted most such attacks several years ago. Gaza militants, including those from Hamas, have fired thousands of mortars and rockets at Israel in the past decade, drawing Israeli retaliation.

Jabari was considered close to Hamas hard-liner Mahmoud Zahar, a Gaza strongman. In 2011, Jabari wrote in a Hamas publication that “as long as the Jews occupy our land, they have one thing (in store), death, or they leave the occupied Palestinian territories.”

Copyright 2012 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.